Kraken's Parent Company Payward Opens Proxy Voting Rights for xStocks
Payward, the parent company of Kraken, announced an adjustment to the governance participation method for tokenized stocks. Previously, xStocks holders had no voting rights on the underlying stocks, but now, through a partnership with Broadridge, qualified investors can submit proxy voting preferences.
Mark Greenberg, Payward's Chief Business Officer, stated that the ultimate goal of tokenization is to allow global holders to have all rights associated with shares, including operational voting rights. xStocks, issued by Backed, targets qualified investors outside the U.S., with Broadridge providing proxy voting and digital asset infrastructure. Last month, they expanded to Hong Kong stocks in collaboration with GTN and plan to cover markets in the UK, Europe, and South Korea, with a cumulative trading volume exceeding $25 billion.
The event-driven tokenized equity is shifting from pure price exposure towards complete governance rights, with qualified investor funds flowing into on-chain products with voting capabilities, benefiting traditional voting infrastructure providers, while early tokenization schemes without governance rights face pressure.
Source: Public Information
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Since launching xStocks last year, Payward, as Kraken's parent company, has continuously expanded tokenized assets to over 500 types, including stock ETFs and pre-IPOs, previously clarifying that it would not grant voting or dividend rights, only providing price exposure and on-chain transferability; Mark Greenberg has long advocated for the globalization of capital markets, previously leading the collaboration with GTN to extend products to Hong Kong and more international markets.
In terms of capital pathways, Broadridge is integrating traditional proxy voting platforms with Web3 authentication, allowing qualified holders' preferences to be included in the formal voting process, motivated by the aim to narrow the rights gap between tokenized equity and physical shares to attract more long-term institutional and retail funds; resources are shifting from pure trading infrastructure to governance and custodial services, enhancing product compliance appeal.
Similar cases can be seen with early tokenization projects like Ondo and Galaxy, which also initially lacked complete shareholder rights but gradually filled the gap, as well as the path traditional brokerages are taking to introduce digital asset custody; currently, xStocks is in a transitional phase from trading convenience to a complete ownership experience.
Essentially, this is a reconstruction of the industry chain: tokenization is shifting from merely mirroring prices to embedding traditional governance infrastructure, with the mechanism being to channel on-chain holding preferences back to the company's decision-making level through existing proxy voting networks, allowing programmable capital markets to truly incorporate elements of control over physical companies.
ABAB News · Cognitive Laws
Price exposure does not equal complete ownership
Governance rights determine the duration of capital stay
For on-chain assets to grow, they must connect to traditional voting mechanisms